Originally from South Australia, I’ve travelled 1700km to take up the position as journalist at the Western Times in Charleville.
As a lover of a relaxed lifestyle and the great outdoors, Charleville has become my new home and with many interesting people, there’s always a story to share with the local community.

"What became clear was Lockyer and Somerset need more water to support and grow agricultural industries and secondary food processing."

During the meeting, water allocations were rejected unanimously by all parties.

"Farmers have made considerable investments in their businesses and create significant employment in the region," Mr Emmerson said.

"Economist highlight the multiples as high as seven times in generation economic activity in local communities."

Attending the meeting, Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington said it was good to see the groups discussing the water allocations.

"The timing for these sorts of discussions is also good as the federal coalition recently announced a $2billion National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility in the 2016-17 Federal budget to support major water infrastructure projects," Mrs Frecklington said.

Both Somerset and Lockyer councils will work with the LWUF to update the socio-economic studies to discuss with the State Government.

Former Western Catchments CEO Simon Warner facilitated the workshop.

During the meeting, Mr Warner questioned how many potential jobs could be gained if a more positive view was taken to use the water that was available in the system.